Indy man won first ever Speedway race, but what came later was crazy

Indianapolis was once home to a daredevil, cross-country motorcyle racer named Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker, who won the first race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Finally, he's getting some recognition.
Dwight Adams/IndyStar

The old man hung out in his southside Indy garage and told the kids fantastical stories of wild adventure. The weird thing was, the stories were true.

Erwin G. "Cannon Ball" Baker won the 10-mile national championship at the new Indianapolis Speedway in 1909.(Photo: File photo)

In the Garfield Park neighborhood of Indianapolis lived a tall old man with a bulbous nose who spent a lot of time in his garage. It was a two-car detached, and in it were marvelous things like old, old motorcycles and photographs of the old man taken years earlier. In one, he was in some desert, straddling a motorcycle and holding a rifle.

The garage door was always up.

"He was home a lot. He was retired," said Bob Biehl, who grew up six doors to the east. "It looked like he was starved for company. So as young kids, when we were looking for something interesting to do, we'd go down there."

It was the 1950s. The old man told fantastical stories about riding motorcycles across the entire United States in the early 1900s, when motorcycles were new. There were hardly any roads back then, the old man would say, so he'd ride on foot paths, dry creek beds and railroad tracks — he'd go bump, bump, bumping along railroad tracks for miles and miles. He rode with a pebble under his tongue because he believed it would keep him from getting thirsty. Once, as he traversed an Indian reservation near Fort Apache in Arizona, he was attacked by wild dogs. He carried a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Special with him. He used it to shoot two of the dogs. And then he proceeded on.

"We were 10, 11, 12 years old," said Biehl, "and to us these stories were: 'Wow!' "

"He'd tell us these things, and we would be open-mouthed," said Tina Hickman, who grew up in the neighborhood.

Baker won the first race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: a four-lap motorcycle sprint in 1909. His best adventures were his record-setting, cross-country speed runs. In 1914, he rode an Indian motorcycle from San Diego to New York in 11 days, 11 hours, 11 minutes; in 1916 he drove a Cadillac roadster from Los Angeles to New York in seven days, 11 hours, 52 minutes. He crossed Jamaica, Cuba and Panama on a motorcycle. He drove a Rickenbacker car from Canada to Mexico. In a Franklin car, he raced a train from New York to Chicago and won. In his lifetime, Baker covered some 5.5 million miles and made 126 coast-to-coast dashes. (The financial end of things worked like this: Manufacturers of the vehicles or vehicle parts paid Baker to make these treks and promoted his accomplishments and their products in their advertising.)

Baker was famous. A journalist hung the "Cannon Ball" name on him early on, and he embraced it — he actually trademarked it. And on his tombstone, an imposing, granite job in Crown Hill Cemetery, he had inscribed: "Cannon Ball Baker."

Baker died of a heart attack in 1960 at age 78. A decade later, he was remembered with the debut of an unsanctioned cross-country motor race called the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. That was the inspiration for two box office hits of the 1980s, "Cannonball Run" and "Cannonball Run II," both starring Burt Reynolds. (Film critic Roger Ebert described the first film as "an abdication of artistic responsibility at the lowest possible level of ambition;" Ebert deemed the sequel "one of the laziest insults to the intelligence of moviegoers that I can remember.")

But now Baker's name is largely lost to history. But that's about to change. A group of Garfield Park residents is raising money to erect a historic marker in front of the house he built and lived in for more than three decades. The group is led by Vickie Goens and Stan Kiwor, who live in the house at 902 Garfield Drive.

Goens bought the house in 2012. She did not know who Cannon Ball Baker was; she just liked the house. It's a three bedroom, two bathroom, brick-sided bungalow, with a sweeping roof of clay tile and a broad front porch that overlooks Garfield Park's sunken gardens. Baker grew up in a log cabin, and so for him a three-bedroom bungalow on such a lot would have been a dream home. He built it in 1925. He was at the peak of his transcontinental powers, and he had a wife and young son, by all accounts an excellent kid.

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Home owner Vickie Goens, left, and her boyfriend Stan Kiwor, right, hold a poster featuring Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, in Goen's home, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., originally built by Baker, April 19, 2017. Goens and Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
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The Garfield Park home built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., now belongs to Vickie Goens, April 19, 2017. Goens and her boyfriend Stan Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Stan Kiwor spreads out original blueprints from the Garfield Park home built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., now belonging to Kiwi's girlfriend, Vickie Goens, April 19, 2017. Goens Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Stan Kiwor spreads out original blueprints from the Garfield Park home built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., now belonging to Kiwi's girlfriend, Vickie Goens, April 19, 2017. Goens and Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Stan Kiwor, left, and Vickie Goens, right, spread out original blueprints from Goens's Garfield Park home, originally built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., April 19, 2017. Goens and Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Vickie Goens, who now owns the Garfield Park home originally built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., holds what she believes to be Baker's hand written notes, April 19, 2017. Goens found the notes in the garage of her home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

The Garfield Park home built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., now belongs to Vickie Goens, April 19, 2017. Goens and her boyfriend Stan Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Home owner Vickie Goens, left, and her boyfriend Stan Kiwor, right, stand in front of the Garfield Park home built by Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., April 19, 2017. Goens and Kiwor have led efforts to have a historical marker placed in front of the home. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

A decoupage photo of Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, adorns a window frame in the Garfield Park home originally built by baker at 902 E. Garfield Dr, in Indianapolis Ind., April 19, 2017. The art was added by a previous owner. Baker won the first motorcycle race at IMS in 1909, before competing in the 1922 Indy 500.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

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Goens learned about Baker from passersby who stopped by with old photos and stories of him and his motoring glory. "That's when I realized how important he was to the community," she said. Clearly, he warranted a historical marker. "For me, he was nothing less than (Charles) Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic," said Kiwor, "the great solo effort, the pushing through, the perseverance."

Baker was a physical specimen. He was 6-2, 225 pounds. He crossed the U.S. on a motorcycle in six days, six hours, 25 minutes in 1941, at age 60.

E.G. "Cannon Ball" Baker in 1958, age 76.(Photo: Star file)

Kiwor, who is retired from FedEx, studied up on Baker's life to write the proposed paragraphs for the historic marker (each side of a marker has the capacity of roughly two Twitter posts). He submitted the paragraphs to the Indiana Historical Bureau for approval and expects to hear back soon. A historical marker costs $2,200 plus installation, and it's up to the people pushing for the marker to pay for it.

To that end Goens, Kiwor and others in the neighborhood are hosting a $25-per-person fundraiser from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Cannon Ball Brewing Co., a microbrewery in the Kennedy King neighborhood. Two drinks are included in the price. The microbrewery's logo is a speeding, old-timey motorcycle, obviously a nod to Baker.

Bars and restaurants more and more are using local color in their marketing, especially as they seek to appeal to millenials. In recent years a number of trendy new spots have been named for historical people or things — Ralston's Draft House, Calvin Fletcher Coffee Co., Liberty Street, Tinker Street, Bluebeard, Long Branch and Thunderbird, to name seven.

History's effect on residential properties is less clear. Goens does not think the Baker provenance and historical marker will add value to her house, and precedence would seem to back her up. The boyhood home of the writer Kurt Vonnegut, on North Illinois Street, went up for sale in 2014 for $899,000. "Your chance to own a piece of Indianapolis history," said the marketing material. But by early 2016, despite the price being lowered by $224,000, the place still hadn't sold. A large house on West 10th Street owned by the aviation pioneer Roscoe Turner recently sat vacant for two years before someone bought it for less than $130,000.

Jim Simmons, who in the 1950s was a neighborhood kid in Garfield Park, remembers stopping at Baker's house on his way from baseball practice and visiting with the old man on his front porch. "He was a little gruff, but not a lot," Simmons said. "He liked to talk about his experiences, but he wasn't a braggart. He just related things as they happened. The weather he went through, the terrain, the surface he was riding on, the people who were helpful to him along the way, what it took in terms of stamina. … I wish I'd written down our conversations. He called me Jimmy."

Baker's son was named Sherman, and in May 1929 Sherman had a tooth ache, according to a newspaper account. He was 14. Baker was on one of his cross-country runs. A dentist pulled Sherman's tooth, and it became infected. The boy died at home a week later. He'd been a Boy Scout, a musician in his church orchestra and had worked as an usher at the Fountain Square Theater. His fellow ushers were his pallbearers.

In honor of their son, on the one-year anniversary of his death, Baker and his wife, Elenora, gave to their church, Zion Evangelical, a wood carving of the Last Supper.

Of all the neighborhood children who heard Cannon Ball Baker's stories, none can recall him mentioning Sherman.

Call IndyStar reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter: @WillRHiggins.

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Baker, on his 1914 coast-to-coast run, stopped in Indianapolis May 12.(Photo: IndyStar file)